Author: Mike Dunn
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Haw River Saunter
…whenever I felt emotionally overwhelmed, I would take a walk in the woods. Being in the stillness and grandeur of trees had always calmed me. ~Brenda Strong We hiked (I suppose sauntered is a better word, really) along a short section of the Haw River with some good friends on Saturday (practicing social distancing, of… Read more…
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Outside Our Door
…it places its nest at a great height, sometimes fifty feet, attaching it to the twigs of a forked branch. Here the nest is small, thin but compact, composed of the slender stems of dried grasses mixed with coarse fibrous roots and the exuviae of caterpillars or other insects, and lined with the hair of… Read more…
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Alien Life Form Answer
There were a lot of interesting guesses and a couple of what I believe to be correct answers. I will preface this post with the disclaimer that I am certainly no expert on fungi (or anything else, for that matter) , but here is what I think our mystery photo is… I thought it was… Read more…
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Alien Life Form?
I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. ~Bill Watterson Today’s mystery comes to us courtesy of Beth Howard, a friend and teacher extraordinaire in the Wilmington area. She found this in her yard and sent me a… Read more…
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Cherry Tree Mystery Answer
We had a few good observations and comments on our mystery post from yesterday. Deb noticed the silk strand in one of the images (reprinted below) which made her suspect some sort of silk-spinning critter. That pretty much limits what type of animal since the only two groups of terrestrial critters I know that can… Read more…
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Cherry Tree Mystery
He who finds a thought that lets us penetrate even a little deeper into the eternal mystery of nature has been granted great peace. ~Albert Einstein Melissa and I have been talking about how we can help students and teachers during this time of online learning so I want to try to do some different… Read more…
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Redbud Critters
A breath of fresh air after a long winter… ~Michael Dirr That quote is in reference to one of my favorite native trees, the Eastern Redbud, Cercis canadensis. And right now, they are at their peak in our woods, casting sprays of pink blossoms in the understory. We have quite a few of these dazzling… Read more…
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Egg Patterns
There is no better designer than nature. ~Alexander McQueen While out in the yard looking at the tent caterpillars the other day, Melissa turned around and saw an interesting pattern on the trunk of a small tree. The pattern and details of the egg tops told us it was the egg mass of a Wheelbug,… Read more…
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Butterfly Courtship
My scientific life has been spent describing the interactions that occur when butterflies meet and trying to understand what is going on and why…I persist in following butterflies with stopwatch and notepad. ~Ronald L. Rutowski, North American Butterfly Association Yesterday’s sunshine (why can’t we seem to have at least two days in a row of… Read more…
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Mason Farm Meander
No one who loves the woods stays on the path. ~Millie Florence Last Sunday, we wandered over to one of my favorite local spots, Mason Farm Biological Reserve, part of the North Carolina Botanical Garden. Given to the University in 1894 by Mary Elizabeth Morgan Mason, the 367-acre tract consists of a number of Piedmont… Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 